Yesterday Apple removed Info Wars from iTunes. This also means that as of yesterday it is no longer available via search in Pocket Casts. That's an automatic thing that happens because we take that as a signal that an author has deleted their content and wants it removed. 1/3
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To be clear: we find this content violates basic human decency and have no issue with it not being in search. Just like in Apple Podcasts, you can still listen to it via the feed URL, though we know by the subscriber numbers virtually none of you do. 2/3
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We understand the slippery slope and censorship arguments, but we aren't the government, we're a private company. Almost nobody on our platform listened to this podcast anyway and we feel that any further comment on this matter only brings it more attention than it deserves. 3/3
The beauty of podcasting has always been it's distributed nature. It's not about the app you use (though it makes it a hell of a lot more convenient). Long before iTunes supported podcasts you always had to add the feed manually. Searh/subscribe is a feature and not a necessity.
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I am glad that podcast is not available but just want to clarify when you say that you are a private co. You are owned by NPR/public radio stations now, correct? I think that some large percentage of NPR funding (10%?) comes from the gov. Maybe semi-private is more accurate?
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Might be a conversation too complicated to have on Twitter: but long story short for all intents and purposes we're a seperate and private company. We aren't publicly listed and we aren't government funded.
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You aren't fully reliant on iTunes right, you get listings from pocketcasts.com/submit too, so Alex Jones being delisted is not just on Apple you had to blacklist him from your podcast directory as well.
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Now you're speculating on how our back end works. I understand what you're trying to say but I think, with the greatest of respect, you might be a bit out of your depth here. What are we hoping to achieve by having this discussion?
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If nobody subscribe to infowar they why r u taking this drastic action. Personally i don't care about Alex Jones but concerned about powerful companies being arbitrator of morality in open internet.
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It's more that we didn't take any drastic action. If you read our statement it was auto removed, and we decided not to override that.
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When a company attempts to silence a voice it naturally makes me want to hear there message, Why are they being silenced? Your stance may play nice with certain crowds but it is a violation of the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. I suggest you read 1984 again
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We're not American and I'm really not sure what your constitution has to do with a private company and our discover section which we choose to curate. That said you can still get to the content if you really want to listen to it.
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